George Fontanills

Tony Lin   Germantown, Tennessee

6:46pm on Sunday, August 30th, 2009 

I have not attended the seminar but I studied George's 2004 books and 2004 DVDs with great efforts. (I bought them used.) From the way the DVD's were organized, I believe both George and Tom know their stuff and are terrific teachers. For educational purpose, the Optionetics DVDs were wonderfully produced and the course content presents clear introduction toward learning what options trading is all about.

Because options trading is a complex earning skill, I believe one has to put in a great deal of hard work. If somebody wants to learn something just by going to a seminar (no matter at what price) and not studying it and "getting it", he or she probably will be disappointed. Maybe that is why some people seem to be so negative in their posts.

As a learner of this subject, I found George and Tom are effective and humorous in the way they explain different subjects. Their course materials are truly excellent and their on-screen dynamic are fun to watch. I really enjoy the learning process. I can only imagine that the live course will be even better than the tapes. I am searching for some way to borrow their books and tapes. I hope I could afford to go to their live seminars one day.

Fernando Morales   Miami

8:41pm on Tuesday, August 25th, 2009 

Scam or not, there are not any other better way to learn. If learning from a book will make you a trader, we should close all universities, and become engineers or doctors by reading books. The class are fast paced, with some degree of hard sales, and a lot of what have been said before this forum are true, but I have taken and paying $ 4000 on a different school and was not better at all. I am an optionetics student that don’t want to pay what they want for their class, but there not a better way out there....by the way for the crying babies by the time you finish all classes you will have to expend around $ 18,0000..it is worth that much ...I think it is...but that is just me. Those who want to become experts in two days will be disappointed....if you have long time goals to learn this "Trade Bossiness" you got to pay, this company or some other one....learning by books will take you there but will take longer...a lot longer, if take you at all. If you are honest with you and believe you can become good trader just reading, without class interaction, teachers help, student, location, etc..dont become their student. My first year lost money, second year is getting better....will I do something different, yes, take more optionetics advanced classes...

Patricia Kaye   Australia

6:50am on Monday, August 3rd, 2009 

I wish I had come across the customer review prior to signing up the course however too late, paid $4,000 for the 2 day seminar and is now more confused than ever in their options trading systems.

Bill Woo   Queensland

11:21pm on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 

Fast paced hard pitch sell. Nothing more than another scheme to fleece you of your hard earned dollars with the presumption that they will teach you. You can find all the info yourself in any good options trading books.
Try your local library then search the net. The risks were never mentioned other than not having to outlay vast amounts to buy shares, stating the obvious. Which is one and the only good point. Question time other than questions about optionetics system/program were answered with "We will show you that, or Its covered in the course". If you are not prepared to sign up then and there on the night you get ussured to door and goodbye. No more questions. Just another glossy fancy scheme. Go get a copy of George A Fontanills (he is the founder of the system )Options Course High profit and low stress trading method book from a library and you will know all about it. Do your own study research on options trading. You will learn more that way.

fau   California

10:06pm on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 

I missed his Calif. seminar-bought his book instead
(TRADE OPTIONS 2nd edition 2009). An interesting book with many errors( pg. 146 suggests an OTM
spread but stock is between the strikes.) Pages
150&151 Bear call spread-top pages correct-middle of pg. 150 reversed.Noticed other errors but didn't
bother to mark them.A how to book with numerous errors-stay away from these kind.

James Syraena   United States

11:30am on Thursday, April 9th, 2009 

Having been around for almost 20 years of trading stocks, options and futures, I can tell you this. There are no secrets that anyone will sell you to insure you make money. This is true of Optionetics or any other system seller. If you truly want to educate yourself in options trading, there are books that have everything you need to learn, either buy them or go to the library.These people didn't invent any of this!George Fontinals didn't invent the spread, or straddle. He's only marketed them like he has. Anyone who really benefited from Optionetics did so because they truly made an effort to learn. They could have done the same thing by themselves. All scams revolve around one idea, that being that the sellers have some unknown method that they will teach you, for a price! There are no short cuts and a fool and his money will be parted. You don't need to spend thousands of $$ to learn. Again invest in some books, go to the CBOE web site, there are educational videos that are free. Learn what it is you are trying to do and save your capital for your trading account.One last thought, if someone is telling you how much money they make with the system they are selling for thousands of dollars, ask them to see thier AUDITED trading results for a full year, not just a few trades. If it works as well as they say what better way to prove it!

Michael Blythe   Virginia

5:13am on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 

Due to the education I received from Optionetics, I was able to alter my trading style to correspond with 2008's and early 2009's market decline. I was able to make a 50% return in the first day of trading when implementing what I learned. There are many questionable things concerning the company but the education I received allowed me to take full advantage of the recent markets.

Rooster   Thailand

3:11am on Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 

Look, most of these guys play on peoples ignorance.
Most of the stuff they teach can be found in books from reputable authors.Why pay thousands of dollars ? There are no get rich quick schemes in this world - only for these guys pushing their seminars and expensive software. If it is so good as they claim then why do they need to sell it to others and not keep it to themselves.
For those in Australia, start reading "Making Money" by Paul Cltheroe first and progress on from there into more detail ie. if it is property investment read Jan Somers , Margaret Lomas etc.
Go to the Library and read up on Options trading - it's free !!
Don't get suckered into these seminars (remember Henry Kaye and his get rich quick property investment seminars !!)

Peter Simpson   Sydney

7:31pm on Monday, March 16th, 2009 

I have done the optionectics 2 day seminar many times. Please beware of these people. They teach you strategies that should theoretically work but in reality they dont because the criteria for these strategies that they give you is incorrect.Eg their calander spreads with so called volatility skews have been debunked by another company.Their straddles with low implied volatility and then ride the increasing implied volatility at earnings have been debunked by another company. Also just the basic long call or put spread with 90+ days to expiration has been debunked by another company,The reason they suggest 90+ days to expiration is so it gives you time to be right. Absolute garbage.

They try to sell you profitsource and other products that can predict where stocks are likely to go by use of Elliot wave. What a load of rubbish, any floor trader will tell you its rubbish.

No one will ever learn how to be a trader from doing a basic 2 day seminar,no matter how many times you do it.
I know people who have attended all their courses for a cost of 20k plus and still are not full time traders.

They give you all these unrealistic returns, Im sorry but you can not turn 5k into 62k by just using options as a previous poster has stated unless you have some inside information on companies you trade options with,even then market makers would be wise to you in possibly knowing something that they dont as well as the SEC. Think about it 5k into 62k is a return of 1240% . And if you do place a 5k trade (all your capital) on the one trade you cant be wrong at all in the direction you have to be right the first time and the chance of you making 1024% on the first trade is extremely remote, so you have to do it many many times and never be wrong. This is the sort of garbage that you have to sift through when listening to other students of optionetics.

Other companies have proven that the strategies that optioentics teach are not taught properly that they give you false info just to make the strategy sound impressive.

However there are a couple of traders there that have been floor traders and when you read what they have to say on there discussion boards about trading you can tell that they know what they are talking about

If you do decide to go with optionetics be prepared to spend an incredible amount of money and also be prepared to sort the wheat from the chaff. Trading is about the toughest game there is it can also be the most rewarding.So please dont believe the hype and believe that you will be a full time trader from doing the very basic and I mean very very basic 2 day course.

Imd   Sarasota,Florida

10:26pm on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 

I have been on and off with optionetics for about 10 years and I can categorically tell you that your chances of making money are very slim. Optionetics is primarily about getting you to shell out as much of your hard earned money as possible.The latest scheme is some overpriced software from Hubb Australia called Profitsource and Value gain, check out the optionetics message boards to see all the complaints with the ever present glitches.Optionetics will deceive you into 'purchasing' the software for thousands of dollars then turn around a year later and shut it down if you dont renew the data subscription on software that you thought you owned.I have yet to meet more than a handful out of hundreds who have actually made decent money out of optionetics education.98% of their students like me have a big hole in their pockets.They have set up another scheme around the suckers who buy Profitsource and Value gain called Profit strategies headed by clueless sidekick Tom Gentile to ostensibly 'teach' people how to use these softwares by paying for endless courses.I tell you Bernie Madoff himself will be proud because here the optionetics students hemorrhage money but keep on smiling,by the time they wake up and smell the roses they have paid for platinum,profitsource,value gain,intermediate,advanced ,ICT,masters ICT and so on believe me it never stops.There is always some course, software ,book ,seminar you need to get you over the top into money making nirvana.As an Optionetics student who has been to the initial course can recall they would whet our appetites with the 'Tarzan loves Jane'strategy it was supposed to be a risk free strategy that you would learn if you sign up for the advanced course (remember Eloy Fenocchi).They neglect to tell you it is really a combination of different strategies each with its own set of risks that are now morphed into TLJ after theoretical adjustments.The optionetics teachers make about $6000.00 per seminar weeked plus travel ,hotel expenses,they live on that rather than trading their own account,selling is all they do.I have been to their big annual investment summit called OASIS in Santa Clara Ca where they foist their latest software money grabber on the unsuspecting students.Consider yourself warned by someone who has seen all you need to see!!!

Brian Armstrong   Florida

7:16pm on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 

I have taken seminars from a lot of companies, starting out with Wade Cook. Wade Cook was a total scam. The $4000 I paid for the seminar was basically someone covering the material in his book. I think it was called The Wall Street Money Machine. For the most part, all it did was tell you about covered call plays. To learn how to "research" the stock you had to take another course. I say this because I felt I was taken and became extremely cinical of trading seminars, but I kept trying. Just before my first Optionetics seminar in 2000 I lost my programming job via the dot-com bubble bursting. I showed up at the seminar with all my materials expecting a fight to get my money back. There was no fight or pressure put on me to change my mind and I got my money back within a couple of weeks. Since then I have taken a number of seminars from Optionetics and have come to know some of the instructors. I have profited nicely from techniques taught at their seminars. I didn't start out like that. I had to work at it to get better with the stategies they taught. For me it was just like any other job I had. I typically was not good at it when I first started, but after I got the hang of it I got much better. I don't understand those who say they down play the risk. Their methods emphasize reducing risks as they go over risk graphs, volatility charts, and money management for the trades they illustrate. Those who are looking for a silver bullet, a hidden secret that will allow you to make huge money in the market without much effort, will be very disappointed because it doesn't exist and they don't teach that. Yet, as I continue to go to their seminars I am amazed at the number of people that are looking for that silver bullet.

One last thought, I have taken private instruction from someone who got his knowledge and trading experience through books and a lot of trial and error. The mistakes he made learning to trade cost him a lot of money in the market. He persevered and is now making huge returns. It is interesting to me that the fundamentals of what he teaches are essentually the same as what Optionetics teaches. They have very different styles, but teach the same basic things - risk management, money management, techinal indicators, how to handle the Greeks, etc., etc. The methods and the strategies they use are COMPLETELY different, yet they address the same basic fundamentals required to be a good trader. If Optionetics was just a big scam I wouldn't expect to see such agreement in the fundamentals they address. Can you learn this on your own? Sure. But you may lose more money in the long run as your educator becomes the market and the market will gladly take your money. Someone once said "If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance".

Oscar   Toledo, OH

1:52am on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 

Optionetics courses are a complete waste of time and money. I will never in a million years receive a return of one tenth of what I paid for the courses. Do not under any circumstances believe that this is any more then a sham to rob you blind. George and Tom and the whole gang should be arrested and put in jail or hung from the highest tree like all the other crooks on Wall Street.

Anonymous   Santa Rosa, CA

2:20am on Tuesday, February 10th, 2009 

I was on the inside when Optionetics started operations in CA. Let me tell you; it's all a scam. Optionetics is 4 guys: George Fontanills, Richard Cawood, Tom Gentile, and Tony Clemendor. George had a flash in the pan year on Wall Street and Richard has been exploiting it for years. Like one person said; "it's a step right up and don't be shy circus event". Richard runs the high pressure sales tent, Tom runs the seminar tent, Tony runs the internet tent, and George waits till you've spent thousands to get to his tent. Don't waist your money.

David Daniels   Virginia Beach, Va

7:01pm on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009

I want to know if Mr. Fontanills gives speaking engagements. If he does, what are the fee's and does he supply bio information.

Anonymous   USA

11:21pm on Saturday, December 20th, 2008 

There is actually a lot of good basic information for the complete novice in the first paid Optionetics course. I think it is over-priced, but it is there. The class is mostly a sales presentation for software, services, and "advanced" education. Here is the kicker. I have met literally hundreds of Optionetics student/clients and only one of them will tell me that they have made more in net profits than what they paid to Optionetics for goods and services. I now trade index Iron Condors profitably (yes, even in the volatile 2008) and for directional trading I trade spot Forex with a simple trend system. No software other than basic charts, no newsletters, no advisory services.

Anonymous   Arizona

11:42pm on Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 

I too can vouch that Optionetics is a scam. After attending their free seminar and being fooled into paying for over priced follow up classes I can honestly say that it was a waste of money. His so called instructors/trader are not traders at all but just overpaid sales people. Actual (sucessful) traders would not be teaching these classes with unrealistic rate of returns. They would be actually living the life of leisure and trading not teaching.

As for the above positive comment by Dave Black, it's obvious it was written by an Optionetics employee or Mr. Fontanills himself.

Dave Black   San Diego

11:33pm on Monday, December 8th, 2008 

I completely disagree, I am very happy with Fontanills company Optionetics and what he has taught me. I started with the Options Course Book and then went to a free seminar. With the money back guarantee and the ability to come back to seminars for free I have got my moneys worth over the years. I have not met Scot Lamm and dont measure a company by one guy. I have met alot of presenters and found them to be excellent.

Its easy to poke holes in others and say they are bad but perhaps it did not work for you but did for me. I could not be happier with Fontanills and Optionetics.

Anonymous   USA

6:59am on Saturday, December 6th, 2008 

Time doing something certainly helps especially with investing. However, after only 4 years on Wall Street at 2 major firms and 5 additional years on my own, I can honestly say I am the best I know. This is partly because of my amazing work ethic. What I have to say about Optionetics is this. It is a huge scam. You can take his Harvard MBA and other BS and flush it in the tiolet. None of that matters. What matters is this...if he really knew what he was doing he wouldn't be pimping out his overpriced dreams to broke desperate people. Instead he would be focused trading for himself. There is no way I would have a clue if I had not managed hundreds of accounts on my own. It enabled me to get really good really fast. Not everyone from the industry is so fortunate but my comitment was to become a great trader and investors instead of a great salesman. You people considering Optionetics or any other course like it need to save your money and focus on getting a real job. Otherwise, you will be much more broke I can guarantee you. Think about it...the best investors in the world from Buffett to Grantam and Griffin and Pickens and so manyothers have had their asses blasted in the market but Fontanilis can teach any clown how to make tons of money?? WAKE UP!!

Rick Ackerman   Colorado

2:25pm on Saturday, October 4th, 2008 

I've been an option trader for 35 years, twelve of them on the floor of a major exchange. I have also written The Striking Price for Barron's, had articles about options published in major trading magazines, and taught a course on options. To suggest, as an Optionetics instructor did at the Denver presentation I attended, that anyone can make money by applying Optionetics' amateurish methods is a brazen lie. If Optionetics can produce proof that, over time, even one student in ten has made money trading options, I will kiss Fontanills' feet and sing his praises.

Anonymous   Location unknown

12:48am on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 

Its a ripoff. All they want to do is sell you more financial products. They do not let you know that you need additional software or products in order to successfully use their system. Then they get you in the seminar and hit you up for $5000 to stay in the game. Their Customer Service and Technical Support is below par. Overall this is not a product that you would want to spend your hard earned money on since most of the concepts can be learned for free online.

Anonymous   New Zealand

7:05pm on Sunday, September 28th, 2008 

Yeah I attended an optionetics seminar in Auckland in 2004. I agree with the above review that it is fast paced and does not allow for questions to be asked during the presentation. Afterwards I remember the presenter saying, "well you guys can ask me questions all night or you can make it easy and sign up right now." When I heard that I had pretty much made up my mind that optionetics is more about selling a product as opposed to real education. I am a futures trader myself and let me tell you that it is 90% mindset and 10% in the system you trade with. Research trading mindset first and then develop your own trading system and stick to it.

Jenn Singleton   New Zealand

10:00pm on Friday, September 12th, 2008 

I can vouch about the intro seminar that Optionetics run. The "free 2 hour seminar" is no such thing, well it's free (if your time is free), but it's run at a lightening speed pace in order to draw you in, with catagorically no questions allowed ... it's a hard sell sales pitch - not a seminar and certainly not a training session as they advertise.
Scott Lamm was the presenter, he was obnoctious, rude and simply a over the top worst type of salesman I have had the displeasure of experiencing. I now know that the Optionetics product may be ok in content, but definately not worth the $4995 price. Be very guarded with this product. You can learn the same stuff for free from the net and books.